Cley helicopter crash

The 1,876 page document, produced by US investigators, includes transcripts of interviews with witnesses that report seeing a flock of geese being scared into the sky, before a “fireball” was spotted by a secondary helicopter crew.

A summarised report released on July 9 confirmed the cause of the crash to be bird strike, after at least three geese smashed through the HH-60’s windscreen.

One witness, a student who had been in the Dun Cow pub just before the incident took place at around 6pm on January 7, said he saw the aircraft scare a flock of geese before impact.

“It literally dropped, like incredibly suddenly. And I could see this orange glow, this orange illumination.

“And it was very quick; I mean so quick that I couldn’t believe my eyes.

“I knew it was a chopper, it must have been a chopper: and thinking about it, my first thoughts were nothing, no mechanical vehicle, could descend that quickly on purpose, so that must have been a crash. And, you know, just watching it I could hardly believe what I had just seen.”